Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Little c

Well, well, well. Sorry for my absence yesterday. Unfortunately, I was battling a server issue at our hosting facility which left me little time to write in my diary. The good news is that all is resolved and now I can happily get back to what is important.

You may notice from my title above that we have had a tiny cancer scare. It turns out that Lynley has a basal cell carcinoma on her forehead. I am sure most are aware but this is a fairly common type of skin cancer and it is highly curable. In fact, the most painful issue has not been the diagnosis but the waiting for answers. Even with experience and the hope of a pretty good outcome, the waiting does not get any easier. You always worry and fret over the worst - or at least we do. The diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma actually came as a relief. It wasn't as great as a diagnosis of nothing but it was better than many of the alternatives we can think of. Hence, the reason we call it the 'little' c.

So, where do we go from here? Well, Lynley has a few other appointments to schedule her procedure. Lynley will be having Mohs surgery which is a microscopically controlled procedure which is known to be tremendously effective in treating this type of skin cancer. It is essentially a method of ensuring that you get all of the cancer out surgically and that the surgeon has good margins. The cure rate using this procedure is roughly 99%.

The trick for Lynley is, of course, the fact that this blemish is on her forehead. It is a little less than a centimeter long and about a third as wide. It is small but still a sizable chunk to take out of your forehead. She would prefer not to have one eyebrow in a permanent lift. Frankly, I agree with her. I have enough trouble raising eyebrows around the house anyway. I doubt I could deal with the permanent look of disapproval. I have enough difficulty with the usual barrage that I earn on my very own. It is for this reason that she is already coordinating a plastic surgeon. I figure this is just another way for her to get a brow lift - as if she actually needs one. I tried to convince her that getting bigger breasts would also help distract people from looking at her forehead but she hasn't seemed to fall for that yet.

Regardless, that is where we are. Yes, it is cancer. But, it is the good kind for a change. We will take it. We know how to do it. We just keep putting one foot in front of the other.